Project Overview

My final year project will investigate the racial disparities in prostate cancer among men of African and European descent. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men, accounting for over 350,000 deaths each year around the world and is likely to affect most men in their lifetime. Men of African descent are nearly three times more likely to develop prostate cancer and to a more serious degree compared to men of European descent. It’s unclear why, but it’s thought to be linked to differences in gene expression between the races, as well as the presence or absence of long noncoding RNAs, fusion genes, and vitamin D deficiency in men of African descent